American Economic Review
ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)
Appliance Ownership and Aspirations among Electric Grid and Home Solar Households in Rural Kenya
American Economic Review
vol. 106,
no. 5, May 2016
(pp. 89–94)
Abstract
In Sub-Saharan Africa, there are active debates about whether increases in energy access should be driven by investments in electric grid infrastructure or small-scale "home solar" systems (e.g., solar lanterns and solar home systems). We summarize the results of a household electrical appliance survey and describe how households in rural Kenya differ in terms of appliance ownership and aspirations. Our data suggest that home solar is not a substitute for grid power. Furthermore, the environmental advantages of home solar are likely to be relatively small in countries like Kenya, where grid power is primarily derived from non-fossil fuel sources.Citation
Lee, Kenneth, Edward Miguel, and Catherine Wolfram. 2016. "Appliance Ownership and Aspirations among Electric Grid and Home Solar Households in Rural Kenya." American Economic Review, 106 (5): 89–94. DOI: 10.1257/aer.p20161097Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D12 Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
- L94 Electric Utilities
- L98 Industry Studies: Utilities and Transportation: Government Policy
- O12 Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
- O13 Economic Development: Agriculture; Natural Resources; Energy; Environment; Other Primary Products
- Q42 Alternative Energy Sources
- Q48 Energy: Government Policy